Industry news

Sound of Perfume winner's announced

by Grant Osborne, 16 February 2009

Fragrance and music lovers braved the snow to attend the final of The Sound of Perfume on 4 February 2009. 400 Friends and Patrons of the Royal College of Music, Barclays Wealth, Steinway & Sons, and Fortnum & Mason, heard and judged the nine best classical piano interpretations of three perfumes from Clive Christian.

The winner was Stay Gold, composed by Ikuyo Kobayashi and performed by Maria Marchant, which was the audience choice for best interpretation of Clive Christian's No1 perfume.

The winners from the three categories, each of who received a cash prize to contribute towards their studies, were:

Erick Flores – The Last Rose of 1872 – 1872 Perfume
Vlad Maistorovici – Transcent – X Perfume
Ikuyo Kobayashi – Stay Gold – No1 Perfume

Lord Robert Winston, who headed the judging panel and is Chair of the Royal College of Music Council said, "It's very intriguing and it's interesting that the project seems to have inspired our students and that is great. Anything which broadens the student experience in a higher education institution like a conservatoire is a really valuable thing so I think this is valuable for us; I hope it’s valuable for the perfume house too; and I hope that we find other ways that we can collaborate in different projects in the future. I'm very excited by this."

Clive Christian publicist Victoria Christian, who organised the project, said, "The Sound of Perfume has been a wonderful example of imagination and exploration of perfume as an inspiration to music. The fact that Escala played on home turf and are enjoying such a celebrated career served as a shining example of what can be achieved in the world of classical music! For Clive Christian Perfume it really was a perfect evening - expertly handled by Three's A Crowd! It will live on in our memories every time we spritz a drop of perfume from now on!"

The Sound of Perfume website has videos and photographs from the event.